An Unlikely Meeting for The Lost Boy
by Hiro Chiba
Summary: This is a scenario of what I think would happen if Ryouga got lost somewhere and met Haku, our favorite Naruto pretty boy, well and alive. This story is taken from Ryouga's point or view. Full summary inside.


An Unlikely Meeting for the Lost Boy

(I do not own Ranma ½ or Naruto or any of the content shown.)

Summary: This is a scenario of what I think would happen if Ryouga got lost somewhere and met Haku, our favorite Naruto pretty boy, well and alive. This story takes place after Zabuza died, and Haku survived in time to escape with his life still intact. For convenience's sake, this whole story's going to be told from Ryouga's point of view and we'll be referring to Haku as a female because it's his viewpoint. Not Yaoi! Or Shonen-ai!

-_Ryouga's POV_

"WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I NOW!"

The familiar voice of our very unfortunate and misguided friend shouted. This boy looked to be about seventeen years old and stood at around five-foot-seven. He had messy and disheveled black hair kept back with only a yellow-and-black striped bandana and hazel eyes. The boy wore a long-sleeved yellow shirt that looked like it hadn't been washed in days, and the green pants he wore along with it looked far too worn and faded. His backpack weighed heavily on him with limited supply and the familiar bamboo umbrella which he carried lay on top of his pack.

Who is he? His name is Ryouga Hibiki, and this is just another typical day in the life of the 'Eternal Lost Boy'. He stumbled through the forest area where he was currently at aimlessly running in a direction he could only think was the way out, but he was wrong.

After a while of trying to find the exit in that forest, he just looked up at the sky to check how much time he had left before the sun set. He realized that he should start setting up camp and stuff like that. You see, he has the tendency to get lost every time, so when it comes to hunting for his dinner, he has to hunt before he sets his tent, for fear he'll get lost when trying to find his campsite. This has happened hundreds of times in the past to the point where he'd disappear with an animal hide he'd just hunted and return many weeks later back to the same campsite.

So to prevent that, he'd hunt, gather firewood, water and THEN set up the tent. After gathering the firewood, and hunting for his food, he pitched his tent right there and then. Smart, right? Ryouga allowed for the first time in weeks a triumphant smirk to wander into his normally depressed and stoic features.

He stared at the fire in silence, reflecting his life in the past year. The first thing that went wrong with his life was another boy whom he'd come to consider as his archenemy/rival and sometimes best confidant. He'd sooner die before he admitted that the too could really become close friends. He may have helped out the pigtailed boy and that role was reversed, but he would never admit that the two have grown on friendly terms.

One of the reasons why he would never admit it lies with a girl whom he has become infatuated with. He could close his eyes right now and pretend it was him making out with her…and other stuff. Just thinking about that caused a trickle of blood to run down his nose. Another reason why he considers Ranma an enemy/rival is that he has a curse. First, he stole the bread in junior high that was rightfully his to catch, then Ranma ran out on the fight he called. Ranma knew he had a bad sense of direction but he could've waited. At least he had the decency to write a note saying he'd gone to China.

Ryouga followed Ranma to China in the exact same fashion and washed up on its shores. He wandered and wandered until he got to that damn cliff where he met with an unfortunate foot to the face that sent him plummeting to his doom. Ryouga's face burned with anger and jealousy from thinking about it, but being out on the road all alone like he has, he had no friends at all, and no girlfriend! Ranma stood in the way of him trying to get to _her_. She was the reason he was sane now. This _she_ he was referring to was named Akane Tendo. The only reason why he has Akane now is because of their fathers. If only he could confess to her it would be alright, but to do that would be to confess the _whole_ truth.

Remember the curse he was referring to before? Well, his curse is to transform into a small black piglet when doused with cold water. Hot water returns him back to human form. The same could be said of the others with this type of curse, but Ranma's doesn't technically count as a curse. Turning into a redheaded girl with a great body any girl would kill for would be considered less than a curse and more like a blessing in his honest opinion. After all, at least Ranma could still talk and do normal stuff like anybody else, albeit he'd lose _those_ extra parts…but that's beside the point.

His nose peaked at the smell of burning roast and he turned his glazed expression back to the fire where his meal was being cooked, and he realized that the fowl he got was burning!

"AH! OW! HOT! HOT!" he shouted when he took the burning fowl out. The fowl was on fire, literally so he had to blow it out in a feeble attempt to keep it from becoming ash in a second.

When he finally got it down, he bit into the fowl. It wasn't the best tasting meat he'd ever had but it's better than nothing. Hell, to survive, he'd probably be hungry enough to the point where he'd eat a wildboar! But an ill feeling stirred in his gut at the mention of eating a wildboar. That's like cannibalism!

After eating what was left of the fowl, he'd decided that since he wasn't tired, he'd start training again. He started a few katas and stuff like that to get into the training mood. To better his skills, he needed to keep training so he could keep up with Ranma. He never thought that while he was training for the purpose of honing his skills that he was completely calm and devoid of emotion. He felt truly at peace while like that, but he completely loses it when the real thing comes around and he has to fight!

"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!"

He made the tree in front of him a target and tapped its middle with his index finger and it shattered like it was sliced to ribbons. Like that technique would be any useful on _him_. The bakusai tenkentsu technique doesn't work on living things. If only there was a technique to make Ranma shatter like that with one tap!

"Shishi Hokodan!"

He focused his heavy ki on his open palms and fired a green ball of ki the size of Ryouga at another nearby tree. It was knocked off its roots and blasted to smithereens. It's nice to know that he still had all that pent up energy trapped in him. With that he kept training well into the night and fell asleep on the ground eventually.

-_The next morning_

A slender girl about seventeen with unbound long black hair, pale skin, and the kindest smile walked into that very forest with a basket. She wore a long-sleeve forest green t-shirt together with brown pants. She knelt down to pick up some herbs when she noticed Ryouga sleeping spread eagle on the ground not too far away from where she was. Anyone else sense déjà vu? She's had this experience before, so why not do it again? It couldn't hurt.

She walked up to Ryouga and tapped him on the shoulder. When he didn't stir from that, she tapped a little harder, and whispered to him.

"Hey, wake up. You'll catch a cold if you sleep here any longer." She said, and Ryouga's eyes opened a tad bit to look at who was disturbing his sleep, whom he was very sure would be greeted painfully with his fist in a second.

"What? Who the hell-?" he cursed, then blinked the sleep out of his eyes to look up and made sure he wasn't dreaming. His eyes widened as his cheeks turned beet red. An angelic looking girl was looking down on him. He gasped and bolted up into a proper sitting position. "I-I'm sorry! I d-didn't mean to-"

"It's okay." She giggled and placed a slim hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"Um, excuse me, miss, but what are you doing out here?" Ryouga asked. A dark flicker fluttered across the girl's doe brown eyes but it disappeared the moment it came.

"I'm gathering herbs." She said and went about picking up some herbs on the ground.

"Oh, I can help you with that!" Ryouga exclaimed, and got up to help her pick up some similar looking leaves. "By the way, these are medicinal herbs, aren't they? They help cure certain poisons."

"To be exact I am collecting herbs called Prunella Vulgaris (see below), but yes they are." she explained. "How did you know?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Um…I'm always traveling around and I use a medicinal herb booklet to help me whenever I get stuck in a jam. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I've come across loads of these situations enough times before to know what they're capable of."

"I see." She said.

"Oh, I forgot to mention my name, didn't I? My name's Ryouga Hibiki!" he said, obviously excited. He wondered how he was talking with a beautiful girl he didn't know and didn't stutter one bit. Maybe he just grew confident? Who knows?

"Haku."

"Pardon?"

"My name is Haku." She said.

"Oh, that's a nice name!" he complimented, and she smiled which caused him to flush red when she did.

"You think so?"

"Yup!"

_-A little while later_

Ryouga talked a little more with the mysterious girl, and got to know more about her. She told him her interests and hobbies, and he did too. Her voice was like vanilla and cherries, pleasant and sweet, comparing her and Akane, he was beginning to like her. He in turn told him his interests, the ones being Akane (he didn't tell her he had a crush on Akane), defeating Ranma, and training. Somehow, this angel in a human body had forged its way into his heart. Maybe there was a silver lining in a cloud somewhere up above. He found himself growing steadily happier and he smiled more sincerely than he had in the past. Maybe he found himself a friend, or a possible girlfriend. Either way, it was nice having a companion to talk and share things with.

"What are you training for?" she asked. "Is it just for honing your skills in combat? You look awfully young."

"Well, I do this because I want to defeat Ranma." he said with scorn in his voice. "For once, I'd like to see him on his knees, or dead, or whatever it takes. So, that's why I train hard everyday. To prove myself."

"So to prove to this Ranma, you must get better. What would drive you to do that?"

"He's always one step ahead of me. In combat...and in life."

"You said you wanted to take away this Ranma person's happiness away. Has he wronged you? Are you happy? Because taking one's happiness away means that you'll be happy to take it away. It's easier said than done." Haku said sadly.

"Well…he cursed me. I'm…not happy. And…I just want him to feel the same way I do now."

"Cursed?"

"Have you ever heard of Jusenkyo?"

"Yes, I have. Why? What does that have to do with it?"

"Let's just say I transform whenever I get hit with cold water."

"I know of the curses and the legends, and I have seen it once before. Curious. What do you transform into?"

"Well, I transform...into a small black piglet. I don't wanna have to show you to prove it." he didn't have to. It showed in his eyes how miserable it made him to think about it, so she let it go.

"I won't ask you to."

"Thank you."

Ryouga half-expected Haku to get up and leave him for talking so negatively about a person while he was ranting. But somehow, she was patient and listened to everything he had to say without ever prompting him. It was the first time in a long time that he actually opened up to someone.

"I have to defeat him and take his happiness away, otherwise I have nothing left to live for." he said sadly.

"…That won't work. Trust me." She said in a tone that expressed long experience and sadness. "It cost me everything that I worked for."

"What has? Tell me, has something happened to you that was so bad?" Ryouga asked, concerned.

"…I grew up in a snowy village with two loving parents. My father was a simple farmer, and my mother carried a terrible secret, one that would change the future for all of us." She delved into the story with her past up until Zabuza rescued her from it and took him in. She neglected to tell him she grew up in a world of shinobi. Far away from normal society, like Japan. "After he died, I grew to hate the world, and wanted to take all the happiness in it away, just like mine was. But it was impossible because I didn't have the heart to do it, so I gave up and started living."

By the end of it, Ryouga found tears strolling down his face as he found someone more than him that faced such hardship, and suffered more than him. She spoke calmly as if she had told this story a thousand times before, and maybe she has but Ryouga couldn't find the words to comfort her in a time like this. It was wrong of Zabuza to do all that, but he was her only mentor. Imagine if that was what he had to go through, he would become even more depressed, almost suicidal. He wondered how Haku had the strength to overcome all that she had, so he asked.

"Why are you crying? It's all in the past. There's nothing I can do to change that." She smiled sadly, and dried his tears for him.

"It's just…that's a long shot from…what I went through. Um…how did you cope with all that? How did you have the strength to overcome it all?" he asked slowly.

"I honestly don't have any idea as to how I lived through that." She said truthfully. "When…Zabuza protected me, his dying wish was…live on. So I did." Her voice cracked a little, and a few tears streaked down her porcelain face.

To her surprise, Ryouga returned the favore and wiped her tears and wrapped his arms around her. Haku was too stunned to even care about someone even remotely touching her like that. Still, it had been a while since anyone's ever done that to her. Again, she found her eyes wet again and started sobbing again. He wasn't bothered by her tears, and wondered why her tears weren't changing him into a pig right now, but as long as he was still human he could still comfort her.

After she stopped crying, he let go and she stood up and stretched. He watched her while being wary of her for fear she might start crying again. She turned around, and to his surprise he found her smiling face. It was beautiful in the sunlight. The way the light cast itself at this angle, making her skin look like it was glowing. He was absolutely bewildered.

"Thank you, Ryouga." She said. "I needed that."

"Y-You're welcome, Haku." He said.

"Well…I came for all I needed, now I need to get going." She said, and took the basket full of herbs with her and started to walk, but Ryouga stopped her.

"Wait! Are you all alone now? If you are by yourself you can travel with me. I'd like a little company, you know." He said, frantically with a sheepish grin plastered on his face.

"Oh…no, I would love to…but, I have no desire to travel just yet. I still attend school."

"Wait! You go to school? I thought-"

"Yes, didn't I tell you? I'm attending high school now that I'm living my own life. Besides, you don't want someone like me to distract you from defeating your rival. You are a martial artist, am I right? Martial artists focus only on the goal and don't take distractions with them. Or, if you don't want to do that, you can just go to school again." She explained, and turned her heel to leave, but Ryouga persisted again. "It would bode well if you did."

"Hold on! I need to tell you something important!" he exclaimed, and she turned back, puzzled. His face was beet red again, and his breath came out like clouds. He took a deep breath and then persisted.

"You're so kind to me and you've ever shown me more than any other girl I've ever come across at first meeting. I'll even take up your offer of going to school, but with my sense of direction, I wouldn't be able to find it without you. I know this a bit sudden, but…w-would y-you l-like to g-go out sometime?" he stuttered, and closed his eyes out of nervousness.

Haku tilted her head a little to the right, and giggled, then broke into full-on laughter. He opened his eyes and grinned sheepishly at his own words, thinking he'd somehow said something funny or embarrassing to make her laugh.

"I would love to…" she said, and Ryouga's hopes dashed to infinity. "…if you'd love to go out with a boy."

"Huh?" did he hear right?

She turned around and started down the path out of the forest.

"We'll meet again sometime." She said, and paused before going on. "And what you'd heard just then, it's true. I'M A BOY!"

Ryouga went into hysterics at that as the last traces of the feminine boy disappeared from sight. He put his hands to the sides of his head and shouted out nonsense.

"SHE'S A BOY! HE'S PRETTIER THAN AKANE!"

... ... ...

A/N: So how'd you like that? Recently I'd taken a like to the likelihood if Haku met another character similar to how he found Naruto in the forest in Episode 12, remember? Ryouga, who seems more than likely to get lost and wind up in a forest somewhere will eventually meet Haku. The only problem is he's dead, but I decided to bend that and make sure Haku lived. I couldn't resist making Ryouga's reaction to the knowledge that Haku was a boy the whole time, it just seemed funny in my head.

Oh, and in case you didn't know, Prunella Vulgaris is a 1 to 2 feet tall herb. It's an actual all healing herb used to cure a bunch of ailments and injuries that can be found in China, Japan, Europe, and some parts in America. Since Haku collects herbs on a regular basis, I thought it would be cool to give that herb a name. What better than an actual plant that I actually have knowledge about.

Anyway, please rate and review. Let me know what you think! And can you give me suggestions on what I should do for my next story? That'd be great! Until next time! Sayonara!


End file.
